Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-05-21
MANUFACTURER IN CHINA.
Possible Effects of Celestial Competition
on the Outside World.


on the Outside World.
The Flowery Kingdom has been, as we
consider it, stationary so long that we have
grown to think it an impossibility that it
should ever awake from its torpor, or take
any forward step in the line of improve
ment. But there is a man now at the head
of Chinese affairs, the Viceroy Ii, who is of
a different stamp from those who have pre-
coded him. He sees that all the world ex-
cept China, moves, and he seems to have
determined to lift his country out of the rut
into which she has fallen and to put her
nearer on an equality with the other nations
of the world.
His most recent plan for the development
OF China is to grant concessions to manufac-
turers of all kinds. This will excite intense
rivalry among all those nations which have
been seeking to gain permanent footing in
China, and will doubtless lead to PROPOSE
tons extremely favorable to the Chinese
government.
But the question of interest is What will
be the effect of Chinese manufactures upon
the manufactures of other countries Will
they come into serious competition with
England, Belgium, Germany, France and
the United States?
To this question there can be but one an
swer. If the plans of the Viceroy Lii are car
RED out, and manufactures are firmly estab-
llShed i'll China, they will work revolution
in the trade and commerce of the world.
AT present China is, to all intents and pur-
poses, only consumer of manufactured ar
ticles. Her exports are confined principally
to natural productions, with some few manu-
featured articles, such as porcelain, silks.
fireworks, lacquer ware and fans, but of the
great staple manufactures she has always
been an importer, not an exporter Her
enormous population is supplied, if at all,
uvith 1faT Ill
tries, and all this trade will certainly be lost
if China shall embark upon manufacturing
enterprises for herself.
But this is not all. If the Viceroy carries
out his plan of granting concessions for all
kinds of manufactures, 1t will be but short
time before China will be bidding for the
trade of the world. We, in California, know
pursuits. Their initiative faculty finds room
for its fullest development in that direction,
and it is certain that if foreigners are admit
ted into China to establish manufactures, it
will not be long before they will be super
seeded by the Chinese themselves, and the
whole thing will be carried on under govern
mental supervision. Then what chance will
those manufacturing countries have where
sufficient wages are paid to support life in
civilized fashion? How can the Belgian fac
tories even, where labor is cheapest in
Europe, compete with Chinese factories,
where the employees will receive from three
to five cents a day? What chance will Biz
mingham and Manchester and Sheffield have
against cotton factories and hardware manu-
factories and cutleries run at such wages as
that?
Under such conditions it is probable that
Great Britain would modify her views upon
the desirability of free trade. She has adj
vocated free trade because she could manu-
facture more cheaply than any other nation );
but as soon as a rival appears which can
one-tenth or one-twentieth the cost, she will
clamor as loudly for protection as anybody
San Francisco Chronicle